Elements of Research Design
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran
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• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Causal
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

• Exploratory study:
– is undertaken when not much is known about the situation at hand, or no information is available on how similar problems or research issues have been solved in the past.
• Example:
– A service provider wants to know why his customers are switching to other service providers?
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

• Descriptive study:
– is undertaken in order to ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics of the variables of interest in a situation.
• Example:
– A bank manager wants to have a profile of the individuals who have loan payments outstanding for 6 months and more. It would include details of their average age, earnings, nature of occupation, fulltime/part-time employment status, and the like. This might help him to elicit further information or decide right away on the types of individuals who should be made ineligible for loans in the future.
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

• Causal study:
– Delineating one or more factors that are causing the problem.
• Example:
– A marketing manager wants to know if the sales of the company will increase if he increases the advertising budget.
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

• Minimal interference
• Moderate interference
• Excessive interference
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

• Contrived: artificial setting
• Non-contrived: the natural environment where work proceeds normally
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

• Experiments
• Survey Research
• Observation
• Case studies
• Grounded theory
• Action research
• Mixed Methods
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

• Unit of analysis:
– Individuals
– Dyads
– Groups
– Organizations
– Cultures
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran

Research Methods for Business
Sample Size Determination Using Krejcie and Morgan

• Cross-sectional studies
– Snapshot of constructs at a single point in time
– Use of representative sample
• Multiple cross-sectional studies
– Constructs measured at multiple points in time
– Use of different sample
• Longitudinal studies
– Constructs measured at multiple points in time
– Use of same sample = a true panel
Research Methods for Business
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. www.wiley.com/college/sekaran